Submission + - People Training OpenAI's AI Fired for Using AI to Train the AI (404media.co)

Submitted by joshuark on Thursday September 24, 2026 @12:25AM

joshuark writes: 404 Media has found multiple contractors hired to improve OpenAI’s models have been fired for using AI to train the AI. That’s not great for the models themselves, but there is also obviously a great irony in AI training companies working for OpenAI firing people for using AI when OpenAI’s whole thing is to make people use AI at work.

“I did feel guilty about doing this kind of work at the start,” they said. “I either pay zero attention to the results and choose randomly or purposely choose the [worst] output. I’m not sure how much of a difference it actually makes since there are hundreds of other people also rating prompt results, but it does feel like I’m getting paid to make AI worse.”

OpenAI declined to comment on its contractors being fired for using AI.

“I’m not a bad person or worker. I just needed a little boost and turned to AI to help me which eventually led to my downfall,” the contractor told 404 Media. “I felt no joy in the work or that I was contributing to society in any way.”

Submission + - Hackers Stole Flockâ(TM)s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks (404media.co)

Submitted by alternative_right on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @09:05AM

alternative_right writes: While much of the automatic license plate readerâ(TM)s (ALPR) most sensitive storage remained encrypted and inaccessible, the joint analysis of the recovered data shows that software running on the device explicitly detects people as well as vehicles, license plates, and bicycles. The camera can produce dozens of images of a single passing vehicle and, according to several weeks of recovered logs, generated more than a million images. Its computer-vision software also sometimes isolated bumper stickers and other graphics, including, in one case, an American flag patch on a motorcyclistâ(TM)s saddlebag.

Submission + - European Cars Are Spying on Their Drivers. The Same Tech Could Be Coming to USA (reason.com) 3

Submitted by fjo3 on Sunday September 13, 2026 @07:14PM

fjo3 writes: As of July 7, all new passenger vehicles sold in the E.U. had to come equipped with "advanced driver distraction warning" systems that watch for signs of "distraction" and, upon detecting them, issue a visual and an audio or tactile warning. Cars will warn drivers whose gaze drifts for more than three to six seconds, depending on their speed.

To comply with this mandate, cars will have to fix cameras on drivers' faces at all times, turning private motor vehicles into efficient surveillance systems. The equipment is supposed to operate as a "closed-loop system," meaning it "shall only continuously record and retain data necessary for the system to function and operate." But it is not clear how that rule will be enforced.

Beyond privacy concerns, some critics worry that the system itself will become a dangerous distraction, issuing warnings every time a driver changes the radio station or glances at a passenger. Others have complained that the requirement will increase auto costs.

Comment I'm kind of disappointed in the article (Score 1) 2

by doc1623 on Thursday September 10, 2026 @11:45AM (#66332484) Attached to: Journalist Calls Out 'Collective Amnesia' of Schools' Romance with Big Tech

The title of the article and the book, aren't talked about much at all. It just seems like a tease of the book. I also found it weird when it talks about "for a decade or more". Tech was battling over schools since, at least the 80s. I'm not saying the book should concentrate on the older stuff, but it should include it, I mean even a few paragraphs... maybe it does and that's eluded in the ambiguous "or more". I have read books that seem to have a more marketing than descriptive title. Hopefully, that's not the case here.

Submission + - August joint hottest month on record as climate change and El Niño drive he (bbc.com) 2

Submitted by AmiMoJo on Thursday September 10, 2026 @04:53AM

AmiMoJo writes: August was the joint-hottest month ever recorded, tying with July 2023, according to the EU's climate service.

The record was driven by a combination of climate change and the rising influence of El Niño, pushing heat into the atmosphere across the Pacific.

Temperatures for the month were 1.65C above pre-industrial levels — surpassing the critical 1.5C threshold agreed by countries to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

While a single month above 1.5C does not mean it has been permanently crossed, it shows a trend towards breaching that limit.

The month also capped western Europe's warmest summer, with high temperatures pushing the season past the deadly heat of 2003.

Submission + - Journalist Calls Out 'Collective Amnesia' of Schools' Romance with Big Tech 2

Submitted by theodp on Wednesday September 09, 2026 @10:36AM

theodp writes: The74 reports that in her new book, Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools ("the inside story of how Big Tech catalyzed, co-opted, and ultimately came to capture computer science and AI education in America"), Natasha Singer, a veteran business reporter for The New York Times, traces Big Tech's bid to persuade schools to embrace their products, with industry-sponsored curricula and tools growing at astonishing speed.

In his book review of Coding Kids , Aran Shetterly begins with a Spoiler Alert: "Turns out, Silicon Valley isn’t especially altruistic." He writes, "At the center of her book is the story of the nonprofit Code.org and its charismatic, Harvard-educated leader, Hadi Partovi. Thirteen years ago, Partovi produced a five-minute video called “What Most Schools Don’t Teach.” This 'audacious act of Silicon Valley influencer marketing...aimed...at a low-resourced nonprofit sector: public schools serving millions of children,' delivered a worrying message: Kids who didn’t learn to write code would be left behind. And the long-term success of the United States economy depended on training these students to fill a million open tech jobs. [...] No word in Coding Kids chills more than 'democratize.' 'Democratizing' sounds a lot like 'democracy,' but the tech-elite byword has nothing to do with a form of government; from the lips of the tech barons, it means enforcing ubiquitous access to their products."

Fast-forward to 2026, and now we're dealing with AI, and tech is reading from a similar playbook. Asked by The74's Greg Toppo, "Does this moment seem different to you?", Singer replies, "This moment is different, but also similar. We are in a moment in society where a lot of people have increased distrust of these huge tech companies, and we see a wave of parents pushing back against tech in schools. [...] We have had these cycles of tech in schools where there are all these promises about the latest tech, laptops, learning apps, massive open online courses, virtual reality, big data's going to revolutionize schools and like democratize access to education for kids and get them these great career skills, and we keep having these cycles. My concern is that we don't learn anything. One of the reasons I wrote this book is because it feels like we have collective amnesia. Now we're in the sixth or eighth cycle of this — and shouldn't we be asking questions about the push for AI in schools, based on what we've learned about the push for all the other things that came before?"

Comment CEO makes argument for industry regulation (Score 1) 185

by doc1623 on Monday August 31, 2026 @10:41AM (#66315740) Attached to: BMW Blames Young People For Loss of Real Buttons In New Cars

Too me, this is funny. I'm not going to make any argument for or against buttons, but if buttons are safer, and the CEO is saying we are making less safe cars because of customers, then doesn't it follow that industry wide regulation would be the best solution?

We did it for seatbelts but since then the right wing... think regulation of any-kind is evil which is ...well... crazy e.g. can you imagine if drugs and/or food had no regulation. My guess is we have too little regulation and enforcement in our food industry already as we have more and more sh*t on greens diseases (in the U.S.), which is so sickening (no pun intended)

Submission + - Solar power and batteries have been keeping Europe's grid stable. (euronews.com)

Submitted by AleRunner on Monday August 17, 2026 @10:07AM

AleRunner writes: "Solar has been doing the “heavy lifting” to help Europe meet its energy needs amid a string of blistering heatwaves." Euronews tells us as Europe's energy demands in the meantime, heat and Jellyfish have been causing shutdowns and reduced power output at multiple reactors at French nuclear plants as we already discussed

Submission + - We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility (404media.co)

Submitted by alternative_right on Monday August 17, 2026 @09:57AM

alternative_right writes: Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.

A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazonâ(TM)s book buying operation, which hasnâ(TM)t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.

That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.

Comment Re:Good, Bad, and Ugly (Score 1) 58

by doc1623 on Friday August 14, 2026 @08:55AM (#66288583) Attached to: VA Launches Psilocybin Trial For Veterans With Treatment-Resistant Depression

My VA clinic (and the closest), hospital has gotten much worse since that article was written. Leaders are all about saving money over the patients, and covering their own tails. It was never perfect but the best providers are now driven out. They just can't keep them.

Unfortunately, I've lost trust in the 'specialty' clinics. They follow the same prioritize money and cya over patients. Community care could be good. It wasn't easy to try and use the DB of providers before, but now it's impossible. On VA.gov years ago, I was able to find 15 pages of orthopedic doctors in my area but since then they quit paginating. So, you can be in the middle of NY city and will only get a small number of results.

The DB was never maintained well as Triwest/VA said it was the others responsibility and doctors where supposed to let them know, if they no longer took it. How stupid is that, any company would have a non-activity hook/flag and check if their insurance hadn't been used in a year or more. Of course Triwest itself has been a boondoggle from day 1

Submission + - Ukraine Finds Nvidia AI Chip in New Russian Missile (kyivpost.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo on Friday August 14, 2026 @08:27AM

AmiMoJo writes: Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) has identified an Nvidia Jetson Orin computer module inside Russia’s new S-71 Monochrome air-launched cruise missile, potentially indicating the use of artificial intelligence technology in the weapon, the agency said Wednesday, Aug. 12.

The finding was published in the “Components in Weapons” section of the HUR’s War&Sanctions portal, which documents foreign electronic components found in Russian weapons used against Ukraine.

The latest research identified 35 electronic components in Russian weapons, according to the HUR.

HUR specialists identified the Nvidia Jetson Orin module in the S-71 Monochrome, a new Russian air-launched cruise missile.

The agency said the use of the computer module may indicate the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into the missile.

The HUR did not provide further details on the specific functions performed by the Nvidia module in the weapon.

Submission + - Proposed ICE Shock Gloves are purely Torture Devices

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13, 2026 @02:38PM

An anonymous reader writes: Wired Reports on how the shock gloves sought by ICE actually work, and they are not in fact intended for pacifying subjects, but specifically for causing them pain:
Classified as a CD3 (conductive distraction and de-escalation device), the gloves don't work like stun guns or Tasers, which shoot out probes or use high voltages to cause neuromuscular incapacitation that overrides the central nervous system. Instead, the GLOVE works using neuro-peripheral interference, essentially shocking the skin to bombard the sensory nerves and temporarily short-circuit the brain's focus.

The latest ("Gen 5") model is capable of delivering 90 total minutes of pain shocks between charges. On just one charge, you can torture a person for an hour and a half.

Comment Re:Great (Score 1) 177

by doc1623 on Thursday August 13, 2026 @10:31AM (#66287146) Attached to: Paramount Considers Leaving California Amid Antitrust Suit

I don't disagree but there are a lot of factors that went into it. No one is happy in America today. Day to day, I think those of us that are struggling have the same issues. The difference is Fox News made a horrible precedent. A billionaire wanted the country distracted from the plutocracy. News was never perfectly unbiased, but they used spin so well to redirect anger, and blame; so much so that it became a model for others like the Sinclaire Group. It's sad though because around 2016, there were a lot of op-eds discussing how news should concentrate on being trustworthy, but that's not what happened. Even sources that are much better than others, are more biased than they were. No one is represents labor. Citizens United was the death nail but there are other issues. The Democratic party gave up on the working class. My history isn't great, so I don't know why, but my guess would be corporate funding. Lobbyist/Money have killed democracy. We are effectively without representation at this point; well 'we' the labor class. Billionaires/Executives get there way, while the rest don't. It's obvious in even browsing the web, we have less control over our own browsers/computers as the corps control them (web standards, or just norms like admin access to your own devices). Then billionaires control the corps. They are only a lever for power and wealth for those that are wealthiest among us, already.

Comment I use trackers but would prefer no google/apple (Score 1) 61

by doc1623 on Thursday August 13, 2026 @10:10AM (#66287116) Attached to: The Pixel Tag Is Google's Answer To the AirTag

I use trackers for my keys and wallet, but my normal usage is at home, and yeah google really messed that up. I would prefer to use Chipolo network with no google, but that may die and of course there is no guarantee they aren't sharing/selling data now that they have partnered with google (or before, but a bit less likely). The trouble is their wallet one sucks for me. It seems they wanted to advertise thinness but made the button an outtie, instead of an innie so it gets pressed and dies for me.

For now, I have to use a Tile for ONLY my wallet. I need the 'where did I drop my wallet', in the house, more than 'where in the world' is my wallet. The latter has helped me twice over the years. Once when I left my wallet at a store, at the checkout, but I just needed to know I left it not exact location. Then another time where a dealership picked it up and wasn't going to give it to me except, I kept wondering around because I knew it was in the area... Yeah, google tracking sucks...but I really like tracker functionality for my keys and wallet, at least. If there was just a non-google/apple affiliated one, that made a good (men's) wallet tracker. I only say men's, because without a protective outer purse/cover mine will get pressed and die from battery usage, unless it has an innie button like Tile's.

let me know, if there are solutions that work better, for my needs and or what you use, especially if you need the cold/hot indicator in close quarters ;P

Submission + - An Ancient Poop Explosion Could Have Helped Complex Life Evolve (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right on Tuesday August 04, 2026 @11:14AM

alternative_right writes: If the earliest animals hadn't been such prolific poopers, life might not have diversified into all the weird and wonderful forms we see today.

That's the conclusion reached by a new review study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

The team of scientists in Australia and Germany found that the Cambrian explosion â" a period around 540 million years ago when the ancestors of most animal groups arose â" could have been partly set in motion by an explosion of feces, left by those that came before.